President Trump’s new version of Air Force One will be limited by the presidential passenger jets’ inability to be refueled while in flight, Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday.
The decision to forgo the in-flight refueling capability was made by the White House and not the Air Force as a way to save money, Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing for his reappointment as the nation’s top military officer and the president’s military adviser.
The new presidential jets will be required to make regular ground stops for fuel instead of meeting up in the air with a military fuel tanker when the president makes global trips.
“It will certainly be a limiting factor and we will have to plan accordingly,” Dunford said.
Under pressure from Trump to keep costs down, the Air Force announced last month that it would buy two 747 passenger jets from Boeing at a reduced price after a sale to a Russian airline never materialized. The aircraft, which must be modified to become flying command centers, will replace the two aircraft that fulfill the Air Force One mission and could be in service for decades.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., an Armed Services member, called the purchase decision strange.
“I think we might have to revisit that decision here on Capitol Hill,” Cotton said.
